The Starpath Project Annual Report 2012

Starpath A University of Auckland Partnership for Excellence The University of Auckland Starpath Annual Report 2012 1 Starpath A University of Auckland Partnership for Excellence

Project Name: Starpath Partnership for Excellence

Department: Faculty of Education

Review Period: 1 July 2011 to 30 June 2012

Starpath Project The University of Auckland Epsom Campus Faculty of Education Private Bag 92019 Auckland 1142

[email protected] www.starpath.auckland.ac.nz

Contents

Reports: From the Chair 5 From the Director 5 Starpath helping to achieve equity in our schools 6 Scaling up: Sharing Starpath strategies for success 8 Partner school profiles: Otahuhu College 10 Ruawai College 11 Breaking down the barriers between home and school 12 Growing strategic leadership for school improvement 14 Lifting subject literacy in original Starpath schools 16 Research summaries 18 Tracking students into tertiary 20 The Starpath toolkit 21 Data systems in secondary schools: The state of play 22 Project outputs 24 Project media coverage 25 Future directions 26 The University of Auckland Starpath Annual Report 2012 As the first navigators crossed the Pacific they followed the stars from island to island. At the beginning of their journey, they found the star which marked their direction, and followed it until it sank towards the horizon. Then they located the next star on the star path, and the next, and the next, until they reached their destination.

The Starpath Project for Tertiary Participation Starpath’s significant achievements to identify pathways that lead to success and and Success was established in 2005 to date include: overcome barriers and risks to achieve address disparities in educational achievement their potential. for Māori and Pacific students and students • Innovating the use of educational data to from low socio-economic communities by: track students over time, and determine The Starpath name evokes the feat of the whether or not they are fulfilling their Polynesian star navigators in crossing the • Raising the sights of students, teachers, potential. Pacific, their daring and determination and the advisors and parents. navigation skills that carried them safely to their • Identifying ways in which talented young destination. • Addressing key ‘chokepoints’ or barriers to people from these groups may be steered educational success. away from pathways that lead to low Starpath encourages students to follow their income and insecure futures towards those own path by identifying their goal, setting • Opening up pathways to tertiary education that lead to higher education. their direction and navigating their way with for students with the potential to succeed, the aid of good data, sound advice, family and ensuring that they achieve their dreams • Changing these patterns by developing teacher support, and high quality teaching and aspirations. research-led strategies to ensure that and learning. students can express their aspirations,

Purapura Whetū (star seeds or star dust) is a stunning tukutuku panel that lines the walls of Tutahi Tonu, the wharenui at Te Aka Matua o Te Pou Hawaiki Marae, located at The University of Auckland Epsom Campus. The panel represents the multitude of stars in the sky with many located in Te Mangōroa, the Milky Way, and signifies the importance of a large family, (hapū, iwi) in being able to develop and sustain one’s future quality of life.

4 STARPATH GOALS AND ACHIEVEMENTS Reports Starpath A University of Auckland Partnership for Excellence

to look to alternatives to the public school Tertiary Education Commission. The Board is system for solutions. pleased to report that, with a major donation from the ASB Community Trust’s Māori and Our commitment is to work with the public Pacific Education Initiative, it has completed school system to enhance processes of goal this task. We are very appreciative of the setting, tracking and monitoring student Trust’s confidence and continuing support. The achievement, and to involve students, teachers other half of the funding depends on meeting and families in lifting academic performance. key performance indicators agreed with the Our new partner schools have committed to Tertiary Education Commission. Performance the Starpath strategies because they have seen against the 2011 indicators was approved by them work in the pilot schools and because the TEC in March 2012. they know they must bring about change. None of this is easy, but we are all involved because The Board would like to thank Mr Rob we know this work is essential to secure the McIntosh, who has been its Ministry of future of many of our young people and of Education representative for four years, and the country. welcome his replacement, Anne Jackson. We also thank the Starpath Director, Our original aim was to increase the numbers Professor Elizabeth McKinley, Professor Stuart and proportions of students in Starpath schools McNaughton, who acted as Director during progressing into degree studies. Students from Professor McKinley’s research leave, the project the five pilot schools are now entering tertiary team and school partners. Their work for From the Chair institutions. Starpath has collaborated with Starpath has been unstinting. This year has been another important year for the Ministry of Education and, with permission Starpath with its expansion into an additional from the schools, we are now tracking these Professor Raewyn Dalziel 34 secondary schools in the Auckland and students into tertiary studies. Chair, Starpath Board Northland region. This expansion comes at a time when the Government has placed an even Starpath is required by its contract with the higher priority on addressing inequalities in Crown to raise private funding to match half educational outcomes and when it has started of the public funding received through the

and 24 in Auckland. We wish to thank all the have eight full-time research and professional schools for agreeing to partner with Starpath development staff who work on establishing so that we can work together towards the and managing databases, and using them to important goal of raising student achievement. carry out work on target setting, tracking and We feature some of the new schools later in monitoring progress, academic counselling this report. and parent-student-teacher meetings. In addition, Starpath has joined with the Woolf There are no ‘silver bullets’ to raising student Fisher Research Centre and The University of achievement - it requires relentless attention Auckland Centre for Educational Leadership and persistence from the school leadership to carry out literacy and leadership work. through to the classroom teachers over a long This represents another eight part-time staff period of time. One of the roles of the Starpath working specifically in this area. I would like team is to assist schools in keeping their focus to acknowledge the hard work of all the wider on the goals, and to provide timely and useful project team. I wish to thank the Deputy feedback so they can improve their practice. Director, Joy Eaton, who has the complex job of While we work with schools mainly, carrying coordinating the team’s activities in all schools. out evaluation research and professional Last, but not least, I would also like to thank development, Starpath has also turned its Professor Stuart McNaughton for taking up the attention this year to how we can contribute Director’s role in my absence late last year. to initial teacher education. One of the aims in moving forward in 2012/2013 will be how we Professor Elizabeth McKinley From the Director can disseminate our work to beginning teachers Director, Starpath Project Welcome to the Starpath Project Annual Report and teachers not in our partner schools through for 2011/2012. We are now 18 months into the offering of a special topic masters course. Phase Two and the Starpath partner school family has grown to 39 secondary schools. As the number of schools has increased, so has Fifteen of the schools are located in Northland the number of staff working on Phase Two. We

The University of Auckland Starpath Annual Report 2012 5 Starpath helping to achieve equity with excellence in our schools

New Zealand’s education system has often been described from OECD reports as being high quality but low equity. But what does this mean? In essence, it means that New Zealand students, as a group, score well on international tests such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), but the disparity between the highest and the lowest scoring students is too wide.

While equality and equity are common words in education, we rarely opportunities and support in school if those opportunities are not interrogate what they mean for schools beyond measuring performance supported when they leave the school gates. Starpath’s parent-student- outcomes of groups of students and participation in some educational teacher conferences are a platform for the school to assist in helping activities. Equality (often coupled with ‘of opportunity’) has come to parents to learn about their child’s school life, school assessment, mean avoiding discrimination and making sure all students are given student data, and the education system generally. Importantly they are the same opportunity as others. Equity, on the other hand, refers to an opportunity to help parents/whānau to learn how they can support performance, and takes the meaning of having the opportunity to attain their child’s learning at home. The conferences are also an important the same results, usually through the unequal distribution of resources to opportunity for the school to learn more about the student from the ‘even up the playing field’. The relationship between equality and equity home. Parents will be more likely to support learning if they feel they are is that students cannot reach an outcome without having, at least, an valued partners in their child’s learning, if they believe that education opportunity to achieve it, but the reverse does not hold. One can have will make a difference to their children’s future, and if the child stands a the opportunity but still not achieve the outcome. So given that schooling good chance of doing well at school. is mainly about providing learning opportunities to achieve an outcome (knowledge), how might we go about raising equality of outcomes for The second important point is that the national data we use to reveal our students? differences in outcomes between groups of students does not allow us to assess the distribution of the opportunities that those students Firstly, student achievement is still strongly influenced by socio-cultural receive. But schools can assess this because they distribute many of and socio-economic variables. What this means for the Starpath the opportunities through their structures and practices. Schools need Project is that schools must see student learning as more than the to interrogate the way that learning opportunities are distributed to individual student, and seek to engage the student’s family/whānau and students, and how the students are supported to achieve the learning wider community. There is little point in maximising student learning outcomes to which they aspire. Once a school decides that advanced

6 EQUITY AND EXCELLENCE IN SCHOOLS course content aimed at university entrance is achievable for its students, Starpath schools to support teachers in the development of skills to teach then it is crucially important that the school (and its staff) provides both advanced literacy to all students across maths, English and science. high expectations and a high level of learning support to these young people. When students are offered the opportunity to participate and Starpath assumes that excellence can be achieved through equity (and engage in challenging and meaningful activities, they need support to vice versa). Achieving good average results across an entire education perform these tasks successfully and have the opportunity to learn from system with limited inequality between groups of students and between experience. The implication of offering high challenges to students is individual students is our aim. If we are to meet this it will require all of that some of them will require more interactional support than others. us to seriously reconsider how we allocate the resources at our disposal. To meet this end, the Woolf Fisher Research Centre is working with

The University of Auckland Starpath Annual Report 2012 7 Scaling up: Sharing Starpath strategies for success Over the past year the Starpath Project has welcomed a diverse range of new partner schools and continues to expand the work with existing schools to improve student outcomes.

After consulting with the Ministry of Education and the wider Starpath The 39 schools display a wide range of characteristics. Fifteen of the team, 36 new schools were invited to join the Project by letter and a schools are located north of Auckland, 15 in South Auckland, and nine in follow-up visit. The team is delighted that 34 schools accepted the West Auckland. Our schools include two area schools, while 11 schools invitation, bringing the total number of partner schools in Starpath cater for students from Years 7-15. In eight schools, Māori form more Phase Two to 39. than 50% of the students, while in another eight schools, Pacific Island students form more than 50% of the student population. In seven One of the criteria for inviting schools to join the Starpath programme schools, Māori and Pacific Island students together form greater than was that they were working with any of the five original partner schools. 50% of the student population, and in one school, Asian students (Indian Starpath is keen to expand the Data Utilisation, Academic Counselling or Indo-Fijian) are over 50% of the population. Of the 39 schools, 18 have and Target Setting (DUACTS) programme developed in Phase One of the over 1000 students, 11 have between 1000 and 500 students, and 10 project by working in clusters where schools can share information and have less than 500 students (some of these include area schools with support one another. For example, Massey High School was one of the very small senior numbers). The official roll of the smallest school is 111, original Starpath partner schools and is part of the West Auckland state while our largest school has 2339 students. This range of schools will test secondary schools cluster called Achieving@Waitakere. Early in 2012 the the ability of Starpath to effectively deliver the interventions developed Starpath Project invited all the Achieving@Waitakere cluster schools to during the pilot phase of the project. join the Starpath programme. All accepted. Starpath also invited three secondary schools in Whangarei to form the basis of another Extending the programme from five to 39 schools has created such cluster. logistical challenges, especially in managing the rollout of the DUACTS

8 STARPATH PARTNERING WITH SCHOOLS programme. In order to do this, the new schools (34 in total) have been Individual schools have also requested support for academic counselling divided into two groups, Group A and Group B. The Group A schools (16) and parent-student-teacher conferencing. We have been able to respond were recruited into the programme in 2011, and are further advanced with school visits and by providing a set of templates and checklists to in initiating the interventions. The Group B schools (18) were recruited support staff in this work. We are currently developing a DVD to provide in early 2012, enabling the Starpath team to stagger the rollout. After examples of academic counselling sessions, and how schools can share learning how much work it took to get 16 new schools on the programme their experiences of academic conversations with parents and students. at the same time, the Group B schools have been brought into the Project in two subgroups. Nine of the Group B schools started in March 2012 Each partner school appoints a Student Achievement Manager (SAM), and the other nine schools began in May/June of the same year. as one of the more significant roles in the school. Most schools have allocated the role to one person, usually a deputy principal. However, Once schools have been identified, a letter is sent inviting them into the an exciting development is that some schools are initiating a data project. After the school indicates interest, an appointment is arranged team approach, with a number of staff sharing the responsibility of with the principal to explain the aims and expectations of the Project. producing data for school and teacher discussion. A central task for the Starpath has developed a Memorandum of Understanding that outlines SAM, with the help of the Starpath team, has been the development of the project, including the Starpath interventions and the work of the an evidential database (EDB) for the school. For most, this has involved Project partners, the Woolf Fisher Research Centre and The University of finding data stored in a myriad of places around the school. Once the Auckland Centre for Educational Leadership, and provides clarity around EDB is established, the SAMs are able to see the patterns of achievement the commitments and expectations of the school and the Project. This in their schools and then use these to determine targets that are related memorandum forms the basis of the partnership agreement between the to cohort characteristics. The process of gathering and cleaning data two parties. has involved schools releasing their SAM for a significant amount of time to attend professional development days and to work on data in Once the partnership agreement is signed, the collection of baseline their schools. Once this work is established, it should take less time to data begins. The baseline survey consists of a data audit to determine maintain if staff ensure that student data is entered directly onto the what data the school collects, where they are located and how they are school management system. used by school leaders and teachers. Interviews are also conducted with senior staff. This information is gathered, coded and analysed and Throughout this year, schools have been required to organise interviews, written up into a short individual school report, which is then sent back to professional development sessions, and Starpath team visits. It has been the school. Meetings are held with staff to discuss the report. vitally important for the success of these events that the schools have appointed a person to provide effective liaison with the Starpath team. Student achievement data are then gathered and entered into a These teachers have managed this huge task on top of their busy school longitudinal database, to be used by the schools for analysis and responsibilities. It is a credit to them that Starpath’s relationships with inquiry. To support this foundation work, Starpath delivers professional schools have been very positive. development in data collection and management, tracking and monitoring strategies, setting targets, academic counselling and parent- student-teacher meetings. Data workshops have been held at The University of Auckland campuses in Auckland and Whangarei, as well professional development delivered in individual schools. The amount of travel by Starpath staff has increased significantly.

Partner schools have been keen to participate in the professional development provided by Starpath. All 16 Group A schools were able to send two or three people to the training sessions on database development, and although one school missed one workshop, they quickly took up the offer of back-up training. Starpath also opened the workshops to the original partner schools. They readily took up the offer to refresh their thinking or train staff who were new to their school.

A few of Starpath’s new partner schools in 2011 were involved in an eighteen month project funded by the Tertiary Education Commission and implemented by Team Solutions, aimed at enhancing Māori and Pacific student pathways into university. The project was based on Starpath research and strategies, so that some schools had prior experience of implementing parent-student-teacher conferences and academic counselling in the school. Becoming involved with Starpath fully enables the schools to underpin this work with quality and up-to-date data, and strategies to target set, and track and monitor student and school performance.

Starpath partner schools in Phase Two Northland: Bay of Islands College, Bream Bay College, Dargaville Auckland: Alfriston College, Aorere College, Edgewater College, Green High School, Kamo High School, Kaitaia College, Northland College, Bay High School, Henderson High School, James Cook High School, Otamatea High School, Rodney College, Ruawai College, Taipa Area Kelston Boys’ High School, Kelston Girls’ College, Liston College, School, Te Kura Takiwa o Manganuiowae/Broadwood Area School, Mangere College, Manurewa College, Massey High School, Onehunga Tikipunga High School, Whangarei Boys’ High School, Whangarei High School, Otahuhu College, Pakuranga High School, Papatoetoe High Girls’ High School, Whangaroa College School, Sir Edmund Hillary Collegiate, St Dominics College, Southern Cross Campus: Senior School, Tamaki College, Tangaroa College, Rosehill College, Rutherford College, Waitakere College

The University of Auckland Starpath Annual Report 2012 9 Partner school profiles

Otahuhu College way conference pathway with our Year 9 Pacific Island students each year to pursue students so the opportunity to become university study and careers in the area of With a thousand Pacific Island students, involved with Starpath came at exactly health science. Otahuhu College in South Auckland has the right time,” says Gil. “We know how the largest Pacific student population in the important it is to engage with families to country. For many students at the decile 1 support students’ learning and achievement school, the biggest educational challenges so it was a natural fit.” happen outside the school gates. “Raising achievement is our priority and our biggest As part of Starpath’s Data Utilisation, challenge,” says principal Gil Laurenson. Academic Counselling and Target Setting programme, the school implemented Only 32 per cent of the school’s Year 11 their first whole-school parent-student- students passed NCEA Level 1 in 2010, teacher conferences earlier this year. “Our compared to 75 per cent nationally. By the experience with Year 9 has meant that end of year 12, this figure was up to 72 per going whole-school was relatively straight cent. “We want all our students to go on to forward,” says Gil. “To get an meaningful courses or real employment,” 88% turnout of families was stunning says Gil. “In particular we want 40% of and a real highlight. Staff have taken the each cohort that leaves Otahuhu College to new style of conferencing on board totally complete degree level qualifications and get and have worked extremely hard to make to decision-making positions in our society.” it successful.”

Before becoming a Starpath partner school As well as being a Starpath partner school, in May 2011, Otahuhu College had already Otahuhu College has recently introduced started to implement similar strategies a Health Science Academy in collaboration in their school. “We had already started with the Pasifika Medical Association. The down the academic counselling and three- Academy is aiming to prepare 25 Year 13

10 PARTNER SCHOOL PROFILES Ruawai College exceptional 100% parental attendance. “It our timetable structure to incorporate two was an obvious highlight,” reflects Stephen. 50 minute learning advisory sessions Ruawai College is located 30km south ”Only two families weren’t able to attend each week.” of Dargaville in Northland and is one of and we managed to follow these up in the Starpath’s smaller, more rural schools. days following.” The school is continuing to expand its Approximately 85% of the 200 students expertise in data use and target setting now travel to school by bus, and for some, the The school is also transforming their vertical that it has more robust and systematic data journey takes up to an hour each day. form teachers into ‘learning advisers’ to collection. The staff hope to get feedback recognise the significant role they play in from students, particularly in relation to Principal Stephen Fordyce heard about students’ lives at the school. “We wanted to learning advisories, course construction, the Starpath Project from a Tai Tokerau distinguish the role from that of a subject goal setting, teacher evaluation and the colleague and jumped at the chance to teacher or registration administrator,” school’s culture for learning. become a partner school in 2011. “I wanted says Stephen. “The learning adviser will our students to benefit from the best be the key member of staff involved in the educational opportunities on offer, despite conferences and we are intending to change our small size and location,” he says.

Over the past year Ruawai College has made significant changes as the staff develop their Data Utilisation, Academic Counselling and Target Setting programme. “Introducing our new SMS system and receiving support to rationalise our archived student achievement data have been important developments this year,” says Stephen. “And while we were engaged in academic counselling prior to Starpath, our teachers have increased their confidence and knowledge in this area through access to Starpath’s expertise.”

The school conducted their first parent- student-teacher conferences with the senior school students in April and achieved an

The University of Auckland Starpath Annual Report 2012 11 Breaking down the barriers between home and school Parent-student-teacher conferences are an integral part of Starpath’s Data Utilisation, Academic Counselling and Target Setting programme. As more schools begin to implement the programme in Phase Two, many are experiencing an unprecedented level of parental engagement.

Developed by Massey High School and goals, specific achievement targets, current differently, depending on the size of the school evaluated by Starpath researchers in Phase performance and how they can work together and the community it serves. One, parent-student-teacher conferences have at home and at school to support learning transformed the traditional parent-teacher and achievement. All schools that have implemented interviews in many partner schools. Instead conferences have reported huge increases of a five minute discussion with each of their Every potential barrier to parents attending in parental attendance. Many have achieved child’s subject teachers, parents are provided the conference is considered and addressed by shifts from as low as 15% parental attendance with set appointment times to come to the each school. A formal letter is sent to parents to more than 80% while others have reported school with their child and meet with one by the principal to emphasise the importance between 60% and 80%. Significantly teacher for a 20 to 30 minute discussion. of attending their child’s academic “health for schools that have implemented the Teachers use student data and reports from check”. Many offer crèches, car washes, NCEA conferences over a number of years, the individual subject teachers to have a three- information sessions and career centres. Each level of parental attendance has remained way conversation about the students’ overall partner school implements their conferences consistent or improved.

“97% of our parents who completed a survey after our conference held earlier this year said they felt it was an improvement on the previous report meetings run by the school. When asked whether they felt the meeting helped them to understand what their child needed to be more successful at school, the response was 100% positive.” Ruth Luketina, Head of Careers and Transition, Mangere College.

“I have never known one single initiative “We have had ERO with us this “Previously at the school’s parent- to have such a positive outcome. When week and the Starpath initiative has teacher interviews attendance had we interviewed staff members about what been much discussed. They are very been between 9% and 13%. A they think makes Manurewa High School impressed with the impact this initiative staggering 76% of parents attended successful, the development of our student has had in a short time period. We our first conferences in 2007 and we achievement conferences is consistently are looking forward to continuing the continue to have similar results year on at the top of the list.” Salvatore Garguilo, gains.” Patrick Drumm, Principal, year.” Sam Smith, Assistant Principal, Principal, Manurewa High School Aorere College. Massey High School.

12 transitioning BETWEEN school AND HOME

Growing strategic leadership for school improvement

Starpath Project partner The University of Auckland Centre for Educational Leadership is working with the original partner schools to grow strategic leadership and tackle difficult conversations.

The University of Auckland Centre for maths and English). The schools’ strategic and the Starpath emphasis, schools tended to be Educational Leadership has joined the Starpath annual plans were also reviewed and some successful in defining clear goals and data- Project Team to offer leadership support to audio recordings of departmental meetings based targets and these were carefully tracked. participating schools. Centre staff began were made. Their leaders were highly committed to raising their work by undertaking case studies at the Māori (and, where applicable, Pacific) student original five Starpath schools. These cases While there were differences between the achievement. Middle leaders saw it as their were based on interviews with the principal schools, some common themes emerged about responsibility to develop appropriate pathways and senior leadership team and three middle what works more and less well with respect to and courses, and were strongly committed to leaders (Heads of Department of science, Starpath initiatives. Not unexpectedly, given improving outcomes, particularly for target

14 building effective LEADERSHIP practices in secondary schools groups. All schools attempted to embed issues. Middle leaders, in particular, are professional learning into day-to-day routines, typically promoted to their positions with though the success of this varied. little leadership training and do not always feel confident about tackling tough issues On the other hand, schools tended to with staff. The ability to tackle such issues Moving forward have too many initiatives and these were is, however, critical to reducing undesirable frequently not sufficiently coordinated. This is variation in teaching quality and achieving Future workshops will provide support to all important, as one of the key findings of the improvement goals. Starpath schools on this skill and will also school improvement literature is the need emphasise the need to be more strategic in for a relentless focus on a few key goals. In a In summary, the Centre for Educational approach in order to gain shifts in school secondary setting, since it is largely middle Leadership learned that schools need some performance. leaders who lead the focus on teaching and further support to ensure that improvement learning, it is important that they are able to strategies are coordinated, well focussed and Over the next year The University of Auckland work intensively with their teams on a few key not unduly burdensome on staff. Some senior Centre for Educational Leadership will offer all goals. Achieving this focus is a huge challenge and middle leaders are also seeking help with Starpath schools: for school leaders, when there are numerous addressing teaching problems in ways that are external and internal pressures on them to be both collaborative and effective. Centre staff • Workshops for senior leaders in order to help involved in multiple initiatives. have already engaged some partner schools them to establish a coordinated and focused in professional learning about how to address approach to improvement. The workshops Another key finding was the need to support concerns about teaching quality. will explain why a coordinated approach leaders to deal with challenging performance is important, the pressures that make it so difficult to achieve, and how to avoid the proliferation of improvement strategies. The workshop will enable senior leadership Principal’s perspective: Salvatore Gargiulo, teams to evaluate how they manage these Manurewa High School pressures, and the extent to which their Starpath work is appropriately focused and “While the analysis of data and classroom observations is essential for developing and coordinated across their school. maintaining classroom performance, the senior leadership team as well as the Heads of • Workshops for senior and middle leaders, Departments involved in the literacy project, identified the need for professional development which enable them to analyse their current in having difficult conversations with staff whose performance was giving concern. approach to tackling difficult performance So far we have had two workshops. This first involved learning about the underlying issues and to practise effective and values and principles involved in an ‘Open to Learning Conversation’ and identifying the collaborative ways of resolving them. key elements of such conversations. The use of modelling and role play also set us up to These workshops will be grounded in real undertake such conversations ourselves. After the first workshop, we had the chance to school situations and offer participants use the strategies. the opportunity to reflect on their current leadership and evaluate the effectiveness of In the second workshop we reflected on these conversations, did some more practice, alternative approaches. got feedback and reinforced the importance of some key strategies like pausing and paraphrasing. I am convinced that the skills learned have had a significant effect on our leadership.”

The University of Auckland Starpath Annual Report 2012 15 Lifting subject literacy in original Starpath schools

Starpath Project partner the Woolf Fisher Research Centre is working with original Starpath partner schools to lift subject literacy.

Literacy has a significant influence on identified by subject experts as having a high is in marked contrast with the pattern of achievement in all subject areas. As students subject literacy component, and providing achievement in NCEA attainment rates overall advance through secondary school, the literacy a pathway to further study in that subject. (particularly at Levels 1 and 2), which has demands of different subjects become more These standards (Subject Literacy Achievement generally improved over the past few years so complex and specialised. Profiling undertaken Standards) are used by the Woolf Fisher that they now match or are close to national by the Woolf Fisher Research Centre has Research Centre as indicators of students’ attainment rates. identified that gaps in students’ subject literacy literacy in English, mathematics and science. are a significant barrier to achievement at The total set of Subject Literacy Achievement Teachers’ knowledge and practices were also NCEA Levels 2 and 3 and University Entrance. Standards is made up of two or three investigated to see how these might contribute achievement standards for each of the three to current patterns of student achievement and In the latter half of 2011, the Woolf Fisher subjects at each of the three levels of NCEA. vary across and within schools. Research Centre completed a profiling phase of the five original Starpath partner schools. In the majority of schools, both achievement Findings from the profiling phase informed and participation levels in these Subject targeted professional development in each This involved investigating patterns of Literacy Achievement Standards were lower of the five partner schools in 2012. The first achievement in specific achievement standards than for schools nationally, and these levels strand of professional development, which is at NCEA Levels 1-3. Each standard was had not changed over time. This picture tailored to the particular needs of each school,

16 BUILDING EFFECTIVE LITERACY PRACTICES IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS involves school and subject leaders working The team has worked closely with the Centre with Woolf Fisher Research Centre staff over for Educational Leadership to plan and deliver three half-day sessions. The second strand is professional development to middle leaders, focused on the specialised literacy demands of the aim being to develop their knowledge of English, mathematics and science, and involves effective literacy instruction and how to lead Moving forward subject-based groupings of department leaders this effectively in their departments. from across the five schools. Future work with Group A and Group B Starpath partner schools will involve the Woolf Fisher Research Centre engaging in detailed research, design and development work to Principal’s perspective: Bruce Ritchie, build more effective instruction in literacy across the content areas. This work will use the Massey High School overarching principles and methods of “The Government has set a target of 85% of students leaving school with NCEA Level 2 the Learning Schools Model for developing by 2017. This is a big but achievable goal, provided the resources can be assigned to effective clusters of schools. support the work required to reach this target. Within this model there are three phases. The Much has been written about literacy and numeracy, particularly up to and including Year first is the profiling of learning, instruction 11 or NCEA Level 1 where both are prerequisites. However there is no such prerequisite and organisational features to identify areas for NCEA Levels 2 or 3, although there is for University Entrance, even though high levels for problem solving and change. In addition, of literacy and numeracy are implicit in achieving at this level. This is why Massey High staff will observe lessons in these content School is very pleased to be given this opportunity to work in partnership with the Woolf areas at Year 12 to understand and provide Fisher Research Centre to raise subject literacy standards for students in our senior school, feedback about instructional properties which is new territory for this work. relating to content area literacy. Hypotheses developed through evidence-based problem The English, science and mathematics departments are the largest at Massey High solving in professional learning communities School. It is appropriate the work is done in these areas first, so the learning can be within each school will be used to design the transferred to other learning areas. The two meetings we have had so far with the Woolf most appropriate professional development in Fisher Research Centre and the Centre for Educational Leadership following their data- the second phase. Ongoing data discussions collecting exercise have been very interesting, informative and productive. will test the effectiveness of the changes in teaching practices on valued student outcomes, The Heads of Departments involved have been very complimentary, and we now look and in the third phase will be used to sustain forward to three teachers from each of these departments meeting with teachers from the content of the changes in the schools’ Starpath’s original partner schools to share further learning and develop their professional programmes. knowledge and skills. The ultimate beneficiaries, the students, will be well served by this professional learning and in my view this work, which is targeting the higher stakes area of achievement, is absolutely necessary to achieve the Government’s goal.”

The University of Auckland Starpath Annual Report 2012 17 Research summaries

Science pathways project NZQA website on individual student achievement by standards for both schools, and school-based interviews/conversations with heads of the In December 2011, Starpath initiated a discussion with other science science department. Dr Mark Gan and Professor Elizabeth McKinley are education researchers about science pathways, a key research strand, to initiating this work. explore and identify areas for research that will help improve Māori and Pacific students’ participation, access and opportunities to learn science A meeting with an advisory group of science education researchers and and progress into science degree courses at university. practitioners has been held. This meeting generated further ideas for exploration, such as the potential uses of a diagnostic assessment tool Secondary analysis of students’ course handbooks on science subject Science: Thinking with Evidence, the only standardised test developed for choices and pathways were carried out in the early part of 2012 from use in Years 7-10 in New Zealand schools. a sample of Starpath partner schools, which led to the identification of current science course combinations, mainly classified as traditional, alternative or innovative. From this course typology, an exploratory case Evaluating interventions study was designed to investigate how grouping students in particular Phase Two of the Starpath Project is made up of distinct but inter- science courses correlates with their science performance outcomes. related intervention components that have been previously identified as important for improving achievement outcomes for our targeted Two schools, one with traditional pathway structures of academic groups – Māori & Pacific students, and students from low socio-economic and alternative (non-academic) pathways, and the other offering an backgrounds. These Phase Two interventions are the Data Utilisation innovative Health Science Academy, were selected for more in-depth Academic Counselling and Target Setting (DUACTS) programme, study. Ongoing research work includes compiling NCEA data from the developed in Starpath Phase One, and the literacy and leadership work

18 EVIDENCE BASED PRACTICE of the Woolf Fisher Research Centre and The University of Auckland regardless of what happens with the other two components of the Centre for Educational Leadership. intervention. Integral to this work, and an important challenge to the methodology, will be how Starpath determines ‘Māori success as Māori’. With this collaboration in Phase Two, Starpath has the opportunity to examine how the different components of the intervention contribute The purpose of this work is to help the Starpath team and schools and interact with each other to improve student outcomes. For example, strengthen their collective knowledge of how to improve student we might learn that school leadership needs to be strong if the literacy outcomes, and will be used to inform each stage of the intervention. and DUACTS components of the intervention are to work effectively to Initial work is being undertaken, led by Dr Mei Lai, to develop ways of raise student achievement. Alternatively, we might learn that the literacy measuring each component of the intervention. component of the intervention is effective in improving achievement

Rochelle’s key findings are as follows. • Students consider that academic counselling supports them to set and achieve their goals.

• Students stress the importance of strong relationships with their whānau teachers. In particular, they want a teacher who cares about their progress, acknowledges and values their culture, and is genuinely interested in them as a person. But the relationship by itself is not enough.

• It is important that students feel confident about their whānau teacher’s knowledge of NCEA and University Entrance requirements. This is significant because many of the students rely on the teacher’s knowledge and expertise to help develop their plan and work towards their goals.

• Feedback regarding the “next steps” is critical for the meetings to Masters research gives voice to students’ be effective. experience of academic counselling Rochelle concluded that there are two implications for schools. Firstly, academic counsellors in schools need to meet regularly with students Rochelle Telfer, Senior Academic Dean at Tikipunga High School, to provide explicit feedback. This is particularly important for recently completed her Woolf Fisher Lead Teachers Masters students who are struggling academically or those who are unsure Scholarship research, which investigated Year 13 students’ of what is needed to achieve the outcomes they want. And secondly, experiences and perceptions of the school’s academic counselling there needs to be more explicit teaching of goal setting strategies for programme. This is where students meet with their whānau teachers both students and teachers. to develop personal learning plans to achieve their personal, educational and career goals, and then monitor progress.

Rochelle Telfer, Peter Garelja (Principal, Tikipunga High School) and Professor Stuart McNaughton (Director, Woolf Fisher Research Centre).

Building effective literacy practices in secondary schools

Starpath Project partner, The Woolf Fisher proportion of students attaining NCEA Level 1 NCEA certificates at Year 11. Māori Research Centre, recently completed a Level 1 in Year 11 was 5% - 13% lower than students’ attainment of NCEA Level 1 rose research and development project (reported in national norms. to 54% from a pre-intervention rate of 38%, the 2010 Annual Report) in collaboration with close to national rates, and higher than seven secondary schools on the West Coast of • Students gained approximately national Māori achievement rates. the South Island. The aim of the project was to one curriculum sublevel in reading improve reading comprehension in Years 9 and comprehension more than the expected The results indicate that a targeted literacy intervention can improve reading 10 and increase the proportion of students achievement levels had the intervention not comprehension for all students and have a achieving NCEA Level 1 at Year 11. occurred, with effect sizes that were nearly three times those internationally reported generalised effect on achievement across the The intervention successfully improved for interventions of similar length. curriculum at NCEA level 1. Improvements in achievement in literacy in Years 9 and 10, achievement can be attained if an intervention • Student attitudes towards reading over and the attainment of NCEA 1 certificates, uses collaborative data analysis to inform time were a significant predictor of reading including: changes in teaching practice based on achievement, with highly positive attitudes local need. • Significantly more students attained NCEA being associated with scores of about one Level 1 certificates at Year 11 as a result curriculum sublevel higher than students The overall evidence from this research and of the intervention. At the end of the with highly negative attitudes. development has contributed directly to the intervention, the proportion of students design for the literacy interventions currently attaining NCEA Level 1 in Year 11 was • Significant improvements in achievement being implemented by the Woolf Fisher the same as the national norms. In the for Māori students in both reading Research Centre in Phase Two of the four years prior to the intervention, the comprehension and in the attainment of Starpath Project.

The University of Auckland Starpath Annual Report 2012 19 Tracking students into tertiary A key goal for Starpath is to increase the number of students from Māori, Pacific and low socio-economic backgrounds in tertiary study. In a first for the Project, Starpath is now tracking students from the five original partner schools into tertiary education.

The Ministry of Education has supplied tertiary enrolment data for 11,516 There is a trend for about 4.5% of students to take a gap year students who left the original Starpath partner schools for the period immediately after leaving school, and when these students are added 2003-2010. The data were examined to find the proportion of leavers back in with their leaving cohort, there is a small increase in the who enrolled in degree-level study, other tertiary study or who did not proportion of students in degree-level study, and a similar drop in the enrol in any form of tertiary study in the years immediately after number not engaged in any form of tertiary education. leaving school. Tracking students from Starpath’s partner schools into tertiary study will Across all five partner schools, the pattern of enrolment in degree-level continue for the rest of Phase 2. With the next set of data, Starpath study prior to involvement with Starpath was between 10% and 20% of researchers will seek to discover whether the students successfully leavers, but this appeared to be steadily increasing towards 30% since complete their first year and enrol in a second year of university study. their involvement in the Project. At the same time, there is a small The results from the first cohort are promising. decrease in the proportion of students who are not engaged in any form of tertiary education (from an average of 57% to 50%).

20 TRACKING STUDENTS INTO TERTIARY The Starpath toolkit

parents in their own language. The decision to translate the resource into Samoan language was taken because this is the third most commonly spoken language in New Zealand and the second most common in Auckland.

Both Professor McKinley and Dr Madjar credit the success of the translation to the commitment and dedication of Faimai Pisu Tuimauga and members of the Samoan community who worked tirelessly to ensure the quality and readability of the translation. New DVD resource supports academic counselling Academic counselling is one of Starpath’s proven strategies that enable schools to effectively support students’ academic progress along pathways to meaningful qualifications. As an integral part of the Data Utilisation, Academic Counselling and Target Setting programme, academic counselling provides the opportunity for students to meet with Minister of Education launches Samoan trained teachers or deans two to three times each year to review their academic progress, goals and plans and the strategies required to translation of popular Starpath book achieve them. The Samoan translation of Starpath’s popular book Understanding NCEA: A relatively short and very useful guide for secondary school students A new DVD resource has been developed to provide valuable advice and their parents was officially launched by the Honourable Hekia and guidance for Starpath partner schools new to academic counselling Parata, Minister of Education and Pacific Island Affairs, to mark the start in Phase Two. Many of the schools that joined Starpath in 2011 have of Samoan language week in May. Within a month of launching, started to design and implement programmes in their school. The Malamalama i le NCEA was reprinted due to high demand from school structure of academic counselling varies and is unique to the context of communities and government agencies. each partner school:

Over a hundred students, parents and members of the education • The design of academic counselling programmes depends on community attended the national launch of the Samoan translation held timetabling, staff capacity and the number of students at each school. at Porirua College in Wellington. In her speech at the event, Hekia Parata • Some schools are starting their academic counselling programme called the book a taonga and praised it for helping Samoan parents and across the whole school while others are starting with one Year level or students understand the importance of planning their pathways through in the senior school. NCEA, as well as providing the practical information needed to navigate their way to their goals and aspirations. • Academic counsellors have reported that they can already see the benefits to students, including increased self-management, improved The national launch was followed by an Auckland event hosted by learning-focused relationships, and solid documentation of student Mangere College, a Starpath partner school in South Auckland. Principal progress and achievement. John Heyes said it was particularly fitting for the school to host the event, as the book’s translator Faimai Pisu Tuimauga and guest speaker, Labour • A number of the schools have already sought and received Starpath MP for Mangere, Su’a William Sio, both have children attending the feedback on their programmes. school. “It is critical that our Samoan students and their parents are fully able to understand the complexities of the palagi world,” said John. • Academic counselling has a significant impact on the success of “We know that NCEA is complex to understand for those who speak parent-student-teacher conferences, because there are no surprises. English as a first language. This The teacher and student have already talked through any issues, and book is just one way of assisting students have already started to set their academic goals and better our Pacific community to fully understand what is required to achieve them. understand what this academic Teachers or deans involved as academic counsellors require an in-depth world means for their children knowledge of NCEA, University Entrance requirements, the students and and their futures.” their backgrounds, as well as the skills to effectively engage students in The book translation is a result of conversations that support their academic progress and achievement. research undertaken by Professor Featuring a series of short interviews with teachers and students, Elizabeth McKinley and Dr Irena as well as visual examples of academic counselling in practice, the DVD can be used as an in-school professional development tool and Madjar during Phase One of the provides a useful starting point for schools to plan an effective Starpath Project. Often requiring academic counselling programme. interpreters when interviewing parents of Pacific students, they quickly learned that to have an impact on student achievement, they needed to be able to talk to

The University of Auckland Starpath Annual Report 2012 21 Data systems in secondary schools: The state of play

While teachers in most secondary schools in New Zealand recognise member being able to go to the SMS and download all the data that the importance of the student management system (SMS) for compiling the school had concerning a student’s achievement, data were found in and organising student achievement data, actually gathering and then many places – in paper files, on individual staff computers, on protected using data appears to be less consistently carried out. Secondary schools drives on the school’s server, and on off-site systems (eg, e-asTTLe have traditionally collected a wide range of data - student demographics, website, NZQA website). This was especially true for achievement data attainment results, extra-curricular records, class reports, and so on. up to and including Year 10, where the data held about a Year 9 student These data can be stored in the school’s SMS, which facilitates collection, in English were not necessarily connected with their achievements in retrieval and organising of large amounts of student information. Despite other learning areas. the importance of data use for accountability purposes and its pivotal influence on changing classroom practices, there is little research on The nearest that schools came to collating much of the data in one what kinds of data schools collect, and what supports are in place to help place was in the reports to parents. These mainly summarised students’ teachers to access and use student achievement data. learning to date and sometimes contained attendance data. For Year 11 onward NCEA results took priority and systems were in place to Over the past year, the Starpath Project has examined the data ensure that the monthly reporting of credits earned to NZQA could be collection and utilisation of the 16 Group A schools in Phase Two as completed seamlessly and reasonably efficiently. The compartmentalised their involvement with the project began. A key component of the nature of the data silos reflects the way that secondary schools are Data Utilisation, Academic Counselling and Target Setting (DUACTS) organised by subject. Even then, subject data are not systematically programme is the development of a longitudinal evidential database, stored in one location but in many locations. which is used to provide a comprehensive picture of what learning looks like at each school. In order to build the database for a school, it is The downside to students’ achievement data being located in silos rather important for Starpath to gain a thorough understanding of how each than in a SMS is the fragmented opportunities for teachers and leaders school assesses student learning, how the results of those assessments to garner a comprehensive picture of student achievement in the school, are stored, and what is done with achievement data by way of analysis, or for any individual student. interpretation and action. Consequently, a data audit is conducted in each new Starpath partner school to provide a platform for launching the There is a need to ensure that all achievement data are systematically DUACTS programme. entered in the SMS, and that good use is made of those data. Without a meaningful purpose, it is difficult for schools to get buy-in from teachers At the end of 2011, each of the 16 new partner schools was assessed on to enter the data in a timely manner. A more concerted effort is required five features: their student management system, the types of data held to communicate the urgency of accurate and timely data entry into the by the school, the state of the data, the infrastructure to support teachers SMS, and the need for a comprehensive assessment policy that is shared working with data, and data generation and use. Through a series of and practised across departments. Work needs to be done to assist short half-day meetings with key personnel in each school, Starpath staff to become regular and confident users of the SMS, and then in researchers identify what data the school holds, and where, with building competencies in data literacy to better use the reports that respect to four data types – demographic, student achievement, are generated. perceptions, and school process data. These data were used to create the comprehensive longitudinal evidential database that the schools Future developments in the Starpath Project will see the expansion of started using in early 2012. the number of schools. By the end of 2012, Starpath will have completed a data audit of 34 secondary schools. Furthermore, we intend In general, it was found that the 16 schools had a SMS in place to expand the data audit inventory to include more data features in that focused on organising and storing student demographic and determining how well a school is using data to inform and inquire into achievement data. However, data storage, management and use in teaching practice. schools varied tremendously from school to school. Instead of a staff

22 SUCCESSFUL SCHOOLS USE DATA

Project outputs (1 July 2011- 30 June 2012)

Books Other presentations and Professor Elizabeth McKinley to discuss Starpath research and outcomes. • Madjar, I. and McKinley, E. (2012) • Irving, S E. (2011) Starpath: From data Malamalama i le NCEA: O se taiala to evidence. Presentation at the Pasifika pu’upu’u ae sili ona aogā mo tamaiti o aoga Principals Executive, Auckland, 9 September. Other meetings and key maualuluga ma o latou matua. [Translation stakeholder visits by Faimai Pisu Tuimauga]. NZCER Press, • Eaton, J. and Irving, S E. (2012) The Starpath • Maria Paenga, Māori in Tertiary Education Wellington. A translation of the popular Project. Presentation at the West Auckland (MITE), 26 August, 2011. Met with Joy Eaton Starpath book Understanding NCEA: A Education Forum, Auckland, 30 March. to discuss Starpath research and outcomes. relatively short and very useful guide for secondary school students and their parents. Ministerial meetings • ASB Community Trust Māori and Pacific and visits Education Initiative Event, 4 May 2012, Journal Publications Auckland. Professor Raewyn Dalziel and • Lesley Longstone and Bruce Adin, Ministry Professor Elizabeth McKinley invited to • Turner, R. Shulruf, B., Li, M. and Yuan, J. of Education, 13 March 2012. Met with attend the formal announcement of funding (2012) University admission models that Professor Raewyn Dalziel, Distinguished for stage two. address quality and equity. Asia Pacific Professor Dame Anne Salmond, Professor Journal of Education, 32:2, 225-239. Elizabeth McKinley to brief the new • Tom Robson, New Zealand Qualifications Secretary for Education about Starpath Authority, 19 June 2012. Met with Joy Conference presentations research and outcomes. Eaton to discuss Starpath implementation, • Irving, E. and Gan, M. (2012) Using a DUACTS strategies and key outcomes. • Peter Walsh, Kevin Moar and Holly modified data envelope to assist teachers Godsmark, Ministry of Education, 3 May in target setting for student achievement. 2012. Met with Professor Elizabeth McKinley, Starpath Events Paper presented at the American Joy Eaton and Dr Earl Irving to discuss data • Starpath partner schools principals day, Educational Research Association Annual work in Starpath schools. Kohia Education Centre, 13 July 2011. Meeting, Vancouver, 13-17 April. Attended by principals from each of the five • Fuimaono Tuiasau, Vui Mark Gosche, • Madjar, I. and McKinley, E. (2012) Partnering original Starpath partner schools and Phase Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs, 21 May for success: Data-based parental-school Two (Group A) partner schools. 2012. Met with Joy Eaton via Skype to engagement in low-income communities discuss Starpath research and outcomes. • Starpath presentation to The University in New Zealand. Poster presented at the of Auckland, 9 February 2012. Attended American Educational Research Association • Nanaia Mahuta, MP for Hauraki-Waikato, by invited guests from The University of Annual Meeting, Vancouver, 13-17 April. 29 June 2012. Met with Associate Professor Auckland. Hosted by the Dean of Education, Graeme Aitken, Professor Raewyn Dalziel, Associate Professor Graeme Aitken, and Professor Raewyn Dalziel.

• Malamalama i le NCEA national book launch, Porirua College, 28 May 2012. Attended by over a hundred students, educators and members of the community including the Honourable Hekia Parata, Minister of Education and Pacific Island Affairs.

• Malamalama i le NCEA Auckland book launch, Mangere College, 19 June 2012. Attended by members of the community including Labour MP Su’a William Sio and Principal John Heyes.

• Starpath principals day, Ellerslie Events Centre, 26 June 2012. Attended by principals from each of the five original Starpath partner schools and Phase Two (Group A and Group B) partner schools. Guest speaker: Professor Saville Kushner. Starpath lecture series • Irving, S E and Gan, M. (2012) Using a modified data envelope to assist teachers in target setting for student achievement. Auckland. 17 May.

24 PROJECT OUTPUTS Project media coverage (1 July 2011- 30 June 2012)

Media coverage following the release about the growth of the Starpath Project and ASB Community Trust funding. Media Date Title/Details Northland Age 31 January 2012 Starpath education project expands Whangarei Leader 7 February 2012 Education project making a difference Dargaville and Districts News 8 February 2012 Starpath growing rapidly in growth Kaipara Lifestyler 15 February 2012 Starpath in Kaipara Radio 531 PI 29 February 2012 Professor Liz McKinley interviewed for morning news report Manukau Courier 1 March 2012 Schools trailblaze new project Te Kuaka, Faculty of Education Magazine Issue 1, May 2012 News in brief: ASB Community Trust backs Starpath Project

General media coverage about the Starpath Project: Media Date Title/Details Te Kuaka, Faculty of Education Magazine Issue 2, July 2011 • Breaking down the barriers: meet our newest professor. Article about Elizabeth McKinley’s promotion to Professor of Māori Education at The University of Auckland.

Te Kuaka, Faculty of Education Magazine Issue 3, November 2011 • The great decile debate. A selection of educators provide their perspective on school deciles. Featuring opinions from Professor Stuart McNaughton (Director, Woolf Fisher Research Centre), Joy Eaton (Starpath Deputy Director), Salvatore Garguilo (Principal, Manurewa High School) and Peter Gall, (Principal Papatoetoe High School).

• A vision for venture capital for social change. Alumni article about Jennifer Gill, CEO of ASB Community Trust and the link with the Starpath Project. New Zealand Herald 10 February 2012 • Divided Auckland: Schools reaching out to the vulnerable. Professor Stuart McNaughton comments about the global report that has found children’s reading abilities are more closely tied to their socio-economic backgrounds in New Zealand than in any other country. Education Review Magazine, Postgraduate 1 May 2012 • The Starpath Project. Feature article about the Project and Starpath strategies and Research Issue for success quoting Professor Liz McKinley.

• Book review of Starpath’s book Unibound? Students stories of transition from school to university, written by Dr Irena Madjar and Professor Liz McKinley. Te Kuaka, Faculty of Education Magazine Issue 1, May 2012 • Giving voice to students. Article about Rochelle Telfer’s masters research investigating students’ experience of academic counselling at Tikipunga High School. Ingenio: The University of Auckland Alumni 1 May 2012 • Taking Issue. Distinguished Professor Dame Anne Salmond writes about Māori, Magazine Pacific student achievement and how Starpath is working with schools to transform educational outcomes. Weekend Herald 26 May 2012 • School of hard knocks. Comments from Gil Laurenson (Principal, Otahuhu College) and Professor Elizabeth McKinley in an article about what South Auckland schools are doing effectively to improve student achievement. Samoa Times 5 June 2012 • Malamalama i le NCEA. Article about the release of Starpath’s new book, written by Dr Irena Madjar and Professor Liz McKinley. New Zealand Herald 5 June 2012 • Easy path for learners backfires: Mentors strive to prevent Pacific kids being steered into soft subjects that lead nowhere. Professor Elizabeth McKinley comments about Starpath’s strategies for success. New Zealand Herald 11 June 2012 • Students put in straightjackets. Tapu Misa opinion piece mentions Starpath’s research from Phase One. Radio 531pi 28 June 2012 • Labour MP Su’a William Sio commented during an interview that colleges offering courses in Samoan have snapped up copies of Malamalama i le NCEA.

The University of Auckland Starpath Annual Report 2012 25 Future directions Starpath A University of Auckland Partnership for Excellence

The Starpath Project in the year ahead

• The Data Utilisation, Academic Counselling and Target • Developing wiki spaces for more effective communication with partner Setting programme will be introduced to 18 new partner schools. schools (Group B), including: • Furthering research in the following areas: • Professional development in target setting, monitoring and tracking, academic counselling and parent-student-teacher • Developing research on using data in science education meetings. in our schools.

• Finalising the Starpath strategies for success guidelines and the • Modelling the effectiveness of the Starpath components in schools academic counselling DVD. (Data Utilisation, Academic Counselling and Target Setting initiative, literacy and leadership). • Working with schools to develop their data inquiry skills to target more equitable outcomes for their students. • Developing measures of equity that schools can use as part of self-evaluating their structures and practices to promote more • Literacy and leadership programmes are to be implemented in 16 new equitable learning. partner schools (Group A). • Continuing the analysis of tracking students through to tertiary • Developing working clusters to enhance collaboration and knowledge with the Ministry of Education. sharing among Starpath partner schools.

26 LOOKING FORWARD

Contact Starpath Project The University of Auckland Epsom Campus, Faculty of Education Private Bag 92019, Auckland 1142 Starpath [email protected] A University of Auckland Partnership for Excellence www.starpath.auckland.ac.nz